By DJ Dave Hoffenberg
Don’t miss the debut of Ray Boston at The Foundry this Friday, May 20 at 6 p.m. I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside Boston at the Killington block parties the past few years. He plays such a wide mix of songs, there’s something for everyone. I just saw him play at Still on the Mountain, the Killington Distillery, and it was a great show. He had this young millennials group there from Puerto Rico and they were really enjoying the show — he is good at reading the crowd and making sure everyone is happy. He surprised me when he played “Feliz Navidad” for them, since it was April, but we all enjoyed it. He’ll be back at the Still on Sunday May 29 6 p.m.
In Billy Joel’s “The Piano Man,” the lyrics are: “It’s a pretty good crowd for a Saturday and the manager gives me a smile.” Those words rang true because it was a good crowd, it was a Saturday and Boston said the manager had a smile all night. The only difference is Boston is the guitar man but he does it like Billy Joel. Boston said the night was a blast.
Ray Boston started playing music his junior year with his brother John in Misty Souls, a high school band and they would play the dances in the area every Friday and Saturday night. Growing up, he liked the sound of Linda Ronstadt, Warren Zevon and The Beatles.
Boston grew up in Brockton, Massachusetts and went to college at Northeastern. He said, “When I went to college, I put the guitar in the closet because I knew if I took it out I would leave college and go have fun.”
About a month before graduation, he took the guitar out of the closet, headed to Cape Cod for the summer then up here and that’s when he started playing full-time.
He started at Snowshed Lodge at Killington and did it for about three years. He said, “The first year they told me to end at 3 but the crowd was still there so I played ‘til 4. The next year I played ‘til 5 and the next ‘til 6. It was great.”
Boston started doing college shows and that’s where he really made a name for himself. He’s played all over the country. He said when they release the bracket for the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament, he’s probably played 80% of those schools.
“It was a lot of fun and they liked what I did. I played from here to there and back again,” he said.
He was traveling a lot and driving all over the place so he decided to learn how to fly, figuring it would be easier. The first time was in a two-seater plane. They flew around a bit and right after they touched down, Boston threw up.
“The pilot said I guess you’re not going to be doing this and I said oh ya, I’m going to be doing this,” he remembered. He was making decent money with the college shows which allowed him to afford lessons. By the end of the year, he had his pilot’s license, his instrument rating and his twin engine rating. He bought a small Piper Aztec plane and for the next five years he flew solo to his shows across the country.
He put together this big production Beach Party for some college shows. There were pools, umbrellas, sand. He played from a lifeguard chair. There would be 1,200-1,500 students at each show. Besides the kids, he made activity directors quite happy.
“It went on for a while and it was a blast,” he said.
He also took that style to the Air Force Academy.
Boston described the criteria he uses for the songs he plays. “The key to whatever I did was first I had to like the song. Second of all it had to be something I could engage the crowd with. I wouldn’t learn a song if I didn’t think there was something in that song that I could pull out and if the crowd was for it, I could engage them with. If not, I’d let it slide and continue with the next song. There was never a stop. It went one song after another. It was a party. If I…
Read More: Rockin the Region with Ray Boston